Dec 28, 2007 9:28 am US/Pacific
Near Miss At LAX Blamed On Controller's Error
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
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Two planes nearly collided at LAX this week due to an air traffic controller's error. (File)
CBS
An air traffic controller's error was blamed for a runway incursion at Los Angeles International Airport this week, when two airliners came within 8,000 feet of each other on the south airfield, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
An American Airlines MD-80 arriving from San Jose del Cabo, Baja California, had just landed on the outer runway and was about to cross the inner runway, where a Mexicana Airlines Airbus A319 was preparing to take off at 8:43 p.m. Wednesday, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor told the Daily Breeze.
The air traffic controller told the American Airlines pilot to stop before crossing the inner runway, Gregor told the newspaper, but the pilot read back instructions that he was going to proceed across the runway to a terminal gate.
The erroneous statement was not caught by the controller, nor an assistant working at LAX Tower, Gregor told the Breeze.
The same controller then cleared the Mexicana flight to take off for Morelia, Mexico, before realizing the American Airlines jetliner was about to roll onto the runway, the FAA said, according to the newspaper.
"It appears as if American got right up to the runway edge or just over the runway edge," Gregor told the Breeze.
The controller quickly instructed the American Airlines pilot to stop and canceled the takeoff clearance for the Mexicana airliner, which had already started rolling down the runway.
"We're logging this as a controller error and not a pilot error because the burden is on the controller to ensure that the pilot's read-back is correct," Gregor said.
It was the ninth "close call" between airplanes on LAX's runways since Jan. 1, according to airport officials quoted by the Breeze.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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